The New Jersey state Senate on Thursday, Feb. 2, narrowly passed a revised version of a years-in-the-making proposal that would give sweeping new protections and rights to thousands of temporary workers in the state, after a months-long saga in which a final vote was delayed three times because it didn‘t have enough support.
The Democratic-sponsored measure, known as the “Temp Worker Bill of Rights,” now heads to Gov. Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign it into law. Though the Democratic governor vetoed an earlier version, the new proposal incorporates changes he asked for.
Advocates applauded loudly from the gallery at the Statehouse in Trenton as the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 21-16 to give final legislative passage to the bill, which labor and immigrant-rights activists have long sought but many business leaders strongly oppose.
One Republican senator, Vince Polistina of Atlantic County, joined Democrats in voting yes, pushing the measure over the top.
The bill (S511) would give temp workers in New Jersey the right to basic information in English and their native language about where they will be working, the pay rate, their schedule, what kind of work they will be doing, and how much sick time they can get.
It would also eliminate many of the fees temp agencies deduct from workers’ paychecks, including mandatory fees for the vans that take temps to their worksites each day.
Plus, temp workers would also be guaranteed to earn at least minimum wage after fees are deducted from their checks by their temp agencies and agencies would be required to pay those workers the same as their full-time counterparts.
Supporters say it would be the first law of its kind in the nation and benefit 127,000 essential temp workers, primarily in New Jersey’s warehouse and logistics sector.
“Justice has come to the hundreds of thousands of essential temp workers who have been advocating for transparency of job assignments, fair wages, anti-retaliation measures and safe working conditions for years,” said Diana Bello, a temp worker and member of advocacy group Make the Road NJ.
“The passage of the Temp Workers’ Bill of Rights will put a stop to these abuses from temp agencies and strengthen penalties,” Bello added.
Temp agencies and business groups contend the new regulations on the industry would drive up costs, threaten to put agencies out of business, force companies to move out of state, and ultimately hurt workers. They argue there are already laws in the state to punish bad actors.
Activists say the legislation was inspired in part by an NJ Advance Media investigation published onNJ.com and in The Star-Ledger and affiliated newspapers in 2016.
The “Invisible Workforce” series, published in partnership with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting in both English and Spanish, found some low-paid temp workers were being exploited and mistreated by temp agencies that sent them to work in local warehouses and factories.
The bill endured a bumpy journey through the state Legislature. Both the Senate and Assembly passed the original version last year, but Murphy conditionally vetoed it, citing concerns about how it would be enforced and asking for alterations.
The Democratic-controlled Assembly narrowly passed the retooled version, 41-38, in October.
The Senate, though, canceled scheduled votes on the bill three times in the last four months because there weren’t enough lawmakers present to ensure it would pass, due to a combination of illnesses and legislators pulling their support amid pressure from the business community.
All 120 seats in the Legislature are on the ballot in November.
But Democrats were able to secure 21 votes — the minimum needed for a bill to pass — on Thursday.
Each time the vote was canceled in recent months, angry advocates protested in the halls of the Statehouse, calling for action on the measure.
On Thursday, they were the ones cheering. Some even banged a drum and blew a whistle as they gathered outside the building shortly after the vote.
State Sen. Joe Cryan, D- Union, said many temp workers are people of color or first-generation Americans who work hard to support themselves and their families.
“It’s been a long road,” Cryan told NJ Advance Media after the vote. “These are people that are in a sector of the temp agency business that have been abused. Particularly, they become perma-temps. They work next to the same person for less benefits and less rights for years at a time.
“This balances and provides a level playing field. More important than that, it provides basic worker rights that they industry doesn’t provide and it holds agencies accountable.”
Alexis Bailey, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said her organization “always appreciated the intent” of the legislation.
“However, we have repeatedly warned that at least one key provision of it would so greatly drive up the cost of utilizing temp agencies, that it would jeopardize legitimate temp agencies, harm third-party businesses that use them, and, as a result, provide less opportunity for those seeking temporary employment,” Bailey said.
That’s the provision that would require temp workers be paid the average compensation and benefits or the cash equivalent of the average cost of benefits paid to their full-time counterparts.
“As a result of this, some temporary workers will be making more than permanent employees whose wages are determined by seniority and experience,” Bailey said. “There are also many logistical burdens to consider as temp agencies contract with multiple businesses that offer different benefits packages. All of this will serve to make it extremely difficult to provide jobs for temporary workers.”
Polistina, the lone Republican to support the bill Thursday, said in a statement “all people, regardless of their background, the color of their skin, or where they are from, should be treated equally under the law, and that certainly includes temporary workers.”
“These men and women are chasing the same American Dream as the rest of us,” he said.
Polistina added he and Sen. Vin Gopal, D- Monmouth, are introducing a pair of separate bills that would address some of the concerns of the business community and his Republican colleagues.
One would require the state Department of Labor to conduct a study to examine the effects of temporary employment and another would require the state Department of Transportation to create a grant program to provide funding to offset transportation costs.
Thursday’s vote came hours after a report by NJ Monitor said 17 temporary staffing agencies that are part of a lobbying group fighting the bill are not registered to operate in New Jersey, according to the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
Bello said the agencies “continue to demonstrate what essential temp workers experience every day on the job: blatant disregard for any rules or standards.”
Denise Downing, executive director of the lobbying group, the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, criticized the agencies in the report as “bad actors.”
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